


When The Call Got Made

by ScarletKilometers



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, because lusamine, offscreen child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-10
Packaged: 2019-10-08 00:21:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17375978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarletKilometers/pseuds/ScarletKilometers
Summary: "Please... there is no need to hurt anyone else here. I will go with you willingly. Wherever you want."Or, a short "missing scenes" fic that takes place right after Lillie got kidnapped





	When The Call Got Made

_"Please... there is no need to hurt anyone else here. I will go with you willingly. Wherever you want."_

They didn’t take you to Aether Paradise. Not right away. They brought you to an unused foundation trailer and told you to wait _‘to meet with the boss.’_ The woman with the pigtails sets the grunts to guard the exit: one outside facing the road, one inside watching you, and her settled with her phone in the opposite end of the trailer.

You pace in what little space is available. Your heart pounds in your throat, and you haven’t been this terrified since those early days after you left the foundation. _If only you never let your guard down,_ you think, _if you’d never gotten careless, you wouldn’t be in this mess._ And now you have to go back. This is it, time’s up. You wish they’d just get on with it instead of dragging this out, this is agonizing. At least Nebby’s been quiet. You can’t imagine these people would take it well if it were to cry out now.

“Be quiet,” The woman snaps. There’s a catch in her voice and she pockets her phone with the deliberate, white-knuckled calm of someone who is making a very conscious decision not to lose their last scrap of self-control. You haven’t said a word since you left the Aether House, but your footsteps on the tile echoes loudly in the small space.

 _Aether House!_ You should have _known_ letting yourself stop at a place the foundation sponsored could only end up like this. You are so _stupid,_ and now look where it’s gotten you! Nebby’s in danger, both of you are, and before long you’ll be back in your mother’s hands, and it’s all because you’re too useless to protect Nebby properly.

You come to a stop in front of a wall full of small Pokémon cages. Looks like this place wasn’t as abandoned as you’d thought. There’s a fat Togedemaru in one of them dozing in a pile of straw. The water in its feeder is fresh and it shows no obvious signs of distress. You turn away from to face the room and try to steady yourself.

 _Okay._ You can see the woman who brought you in, you can see the door. _Okay._ You take deep breaths and try to gain some control over the shaking in your legs, your shoulders, your fists. _Okay._ They’ve covered the door. The windows are don’t open and you doubt they’d break even if there were anything here to throw at them. This really is the perfect place to hold a prisoner, especially one as weak as you.

 _If Nebby woke up and used its powers now,_ you think hopelessly, _you wouldn’t complain at all._ But it won’t, and you certainly aren’t going to make it. One way or another, this is it. The witching hour, so to speak. The endgame, the final act. Everything that’s come out of the last three months is coming to an end, it was only a matter of time. But you don’t think you’re ready to give up. If there’s anything you can still do to protect Nebby, you will do it. You have to try! There must be _something_ left that you can do! There almost always is, you’ve found.

 _“The boss’s here!”_ The grunt that had been guarding outside throws open the door and the both of them move to stand on either side of you, and a second later they’re followed by “the boss” himself.

Wow, okay. He stops in front of you and you think you have a new appreciation for how Pikipek must feel when Talonflame hunt them. He is unreasonably tall and staring at you like you’re a bomb that he has to disarm with a fork. Of course, _this_ is the moment Nebby decides to wake up and make its presence known, crying out in fear and thrashing in the bag.

Everyone startles, including him, which surprises you. Of all the things for the boss of Team Skull to be, the last thing you would have expected was _flinchy._ He reaches towards you and you lurch back, and for a bright, terrible second you think he’s going to grab your neck. But all he does is haul your bag roughly off over your head and open it up. He catches Nebby by one arm and yanks it out of the bag, which he throws unceremoniously to the ground.

Oh, to hell with _that. “NO!”_ you fling yourself him and are immediately caught under the arms by the grunts _“Stop it!”_

Mr. Guzma completely ignores your outburst and holds Nebby out to the woman in the back. “This it then?” he shakes it slightly, like a coin purse. “And she’s---"

“Yeah, that’s the Pokémon the President wants. The Girl, too.” This is the first thing she’s said since you were brought here there’s still a throb in her voice that you can’t place the cause of. You struggle uselessly, but the grunts hold you fast. You’re not going anywhere. _If I could just break their grip, put an elbow to their stupid faces…_

Meanwhile, Nebby wriggles against the boss’s grip but clearly hasn’t considered that it might be in danger. You know you’ve scruffed it like that your share of times, mostly in the early days before you learned the proper way to handle it.

He places Nebby back in the bag with surprising care and then swings it roughly over his shoulder. “C’mon, boys,” He throws open the door and the grunts shove you forward with a _Move it, girlie_ and far more force than was strictly necessary.

Okay. You’re done making your friends fight your battles, and no one else is coming to save you. But, you’ve decided: you’re still going try to save Nebby. Whatever power you have, you will use. You’ve done too much to let it die now, and you’re not giving up.

Maybe you can talk to your mother.

They step out into the moonlight, and you follow.

**Author's Note:**

> Did they haul you out  
> On a really hot day?  
> When the call got made  
> You had gone away  
> It doesn't know  
> -Gorillaz, _Plastic Beach ___


End file.
